Arts and Music Atlas

Works, Makers, Traditions
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Work

Man, Controller of the Universe

Genre Scenes

Man, Controller of the Universe is a fresco by the Mexican painter Diego Rivera, completed in 1934 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. It is Rivera's own recreation of Man at the Crossroads, a 1933 mural he had painted for the lobby of the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center in New York, which was plastered over and destroyed before completion after Rivera included a portrait of Vladimir Lenin that the Rockefeller family found unacceptable. The three part composition contrasts a central worker controlling machinery with flanking scenes representing socialism and capitalism, and the destruction of the original in New York provoked significant protest among artists at the time. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Year Created
1934 2
Medium
Fresco 2
Location
Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City 2
Classification
Genre
Painting 1
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Man at the Crossroads (Wikipedia)
Genre reference
Quote, Genre reference
Man, Controller of the Universe is a fresco by the Mexican painter Diego Rivera, completed in 1934 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.
View the Source
2. Wikipedia: Man at the Crossroads
  • Man, Controller of the Universe section
    In late 1933, Rivera went to Mexico City and persuaded the Mexican government to let him repaint the mural on a blank wall at the Palacio de Bellas Artes.
  • infobox, Condition field
    a smaller replica made by Rivera in 1934 is located in the Palacio de Bellas Artes
  • infobox, Medium field
    Fresco
View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.